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Saturday, April 4, 2009

I found Namihei Koshige's Blog and he has interesting pictures from the Power Rangers RPM set. He is a suit actor and has been since 1995, he has done most of the female rangers.

These are from November and December, it seems one of the Rangers is gonna be in a wedding dress. And here is a delightful post on how he has doubled for the Rangers in non-suit like Max (Wild Force), Cassie (Space), Syd (SPD), Trip (Time Force), and Ethan (Dino Thunder).

Here is an interesting post from Namihei Koshige, the suit actor for most of the female Power Rangers for the past 15 years. This picture includes him (in middle), Adelaide Kane (Tenaya 7) and some of the crew, I do not know who exactly. The post is about the wrap-up party for Power Rangers.

This is picture has Koichi Sakamoto, stunt director and producer of Power Rangers receiving a card and flowers at the wrap-up party for Power Rangers RPM. This was posted March 30, 2009, Namihei reflects on his 14 years being on the show since 1995. I can not translate it, but I got most of this from a google translator, which isn't 100%.

Here is his YouTube channel, which has only videos of him and two on the set, but not in Power Rangers outfits so we will not know what it is from until we see the episode. The above picture is a Jungle Fury set. He does great work and I am an admirer of his work.

Shipping of Ranger and monster costumes and props usually happens in March and April from Japan to overseas and it has not happened as of yet an insider says.

It has happened seven times in Super Sentai, six series have started with three Rangers: Sun Vulcan, Liveman, Kakuranger, Hurricanger, Abaranger, Gekiranger, and Go-Onger. Kakuranger started with three rangers (red, white, and blue) in the first episode but in the opening theme and all merchandise, Kakuranger had 5 rangers. Go-Onger started with three Rangers (red, yellow, and blue) in the first episode but in the opening theme and all merchandise, Go-Onger had 5 rangers. Commercially and merchandise, Sun Vulcan, Liveman, Hurricanger, Abaranger, and Gekiranger started with 3 Rangers; they were five shows that did that. Those five shows that started with three Rangers, they all had the primary colors of Red, Yellow and Blue. Only two cases, blue was female and yellow was male. Kakuranger is unique in that it is not remembered for starting with three Rangers. Go-Onger started with three, but quickly was made five.

Three shows in Power Rangers started with three Rangers; Power Rangers Ninja Storm, Power Rangers Dino Thunder, and Power Rangers Jungle Fury. Like Go-Onger, Power Rangers RPM started with 3 and officially became 4 in episode 3 and 5 in episode 4. While with the Aquitar Rangers, it was always five.

Silver was first introduced as a new color in 1997 with Mega Silver. The label 'Silver' has been used on quite a few Rangers in Super Sentai, more in Super Sentai than Power Rangers. Each of them are different degrees of silver, I thought I'd cover them. Mega Silver / Silver Ranger [Megaranger (1997) / Power Rangers in Space (1998)] is the first ever silver warrior, it was more like a white, a shimmery platinum-like color. In Power Rangers, it was much more bland and white-ish. The silver in GaoSilver / Lunar Wolf Ranger [Gaoranger (2001) / Power Rangers Wild Force (2002)] was a solid silver, shiny but still grey-ish. Plus, it was accompanied with the color indigo. Deka Bright / Nova Ranger [Dekaranger (2004) / Power Rangers S.P.D. (2005)], who was not officially called silver in neither incarnation, her degree of silver is indeed bright, brighter than Gao Silver but not brighter than Mega Silver. It is like a light grey, it is shinier than Mega Silver. Of course, Deka Bright's suit was half-navy.

Bouken Silver / Mercury Ranger [Boukenger (2006) / Power Rangers Operation Overdrive (2007)] is super shiny and metallic, almost alluinium. His suit also had black and orange, a bit of red and that shiny blue. Go-On Silver / Ranger Silver [Go-Onger (2008) / Power Rangers RPM (2009)] is very shiny and aluminum-like and a bit blue-ish, almost the same as Bouken Silver, maybe Bouken Silver was more blue-ish, where Go-On Silver is the only one that is definitely metallic silver, not blue-ish, grey-ish or anything. Her costume is half black. Mega Silver, Gao Silver and Deka Bright all had some gold in their outfits.

I got a very polite request to cover what colors have been covered for the Sixth and Additional Rangers.

They probably stuck most to metallic colors, I don't know how you would categorize the colors black, white, silver and gold, they are colors that are not primary and not secondary. Green and Purple are secondary colors, Green has only been used twice. Red has only used once in an entire series; AbareMax was red but he was only a power-up and is not considered a Sixth Ranger by fans nor officially anymore. The colors used by the female additional rangers had been used by male Rangers, except for Deka Swan, whose colors white and orange were later used in Geki Chopper.

Episode Summary:Ziggy thought Dr. K was a dude and now she is testing him and he fails his first test... teleportation, uh-oh they are messing with teleportation too? No need to worry, it seems to be a X-men like teleportation where you can't really figure where you gonna end up unless you train. So he fails and Dr. K figures it is not the first time... we are delightfully shown two others times Ziggy has failed a test.... a driver's test and the test to be part of the Scorpion Cartel mafia. Dr. K is upset at Ziggy and doesn't like him, which he finds out when he tries to plead his case to stay a Ranger. So a new bot has infiltrated the city, which didn't seem to happen often until the two new Rangers entered the city. The four rangers are in trouble against the magnet-pulling monster and need Ziggy to teleport.

Ziggy teleports and has disappeared. He reappears un-transformed and in a strange dark place... the bank and is accused by officers. He ends up in prison, with Scott's dad, Summer, and Dillon interview him. Scott's dad has found out he came in with the Scorpion Cartel, we are given a flashback where we get a mini Jungle Fury crossover where they come out of the Jungle Karma Pizza. We find out he was to get money out of an orphanage/clinic, where kids have the 'gamma sickness.' So what made all the criminals upset? Ziggy had to drive a truck with pretty valuable cargo and according to the mobster, they say Ziggy stole it and was greedy. Dr. K wants to take the morpher from Ziggy because he won't tell them. Meanwhile, Flynn and Scott are unfortunate enough to find themselves in a junk yard with the Magnet-bot.

Dillon and Summer have to go but Dillon is worried about Ziggy, Scott's dad says he will take care of it. They arrive, only to be beaten and un-morphed. Meanwhile, Ziggy gets a meal and is in trouble with the mafia. The unmorphed Rangers fight Grinders while the monster tries hot-wiring the gate to the city. The four morph again and Benny (who used to work with Ziggy) tries to talk to Dr. K when she is busy. She says she never goes outside. She lets him, grudgingly so. The Rangers fight the attack bot and the Grinders. The three Rangers destroy him with their combined blaster and he grows and the Megazord is formed. Benny tells Dr. K they are going to 'make an example' of Ziggy for 'what he did.'

The truth is he got a flat tire and what was in the truck was medical supplies and he brought it to the sick kids with gamma sickness of course. Benny vouches for Ziggy. He is the one that helped him out of the city. We are shown a flashback of Ziggy and Dillon outside in the desert. Then we are shown Ziggy (not in jail anymore) being ambushed by most of the 'men' that were involved with the robbery. He asked Ziggy why he did what he did and he said he would do ti again. He is about to gotten beat up when Dr. K comes in a white coat and that experimental laser she didn't let anyone else use. The gangsters scoff at her but Ziggy ducks for cover and she blasts it at some selected men and a pudgy out of shape guy and one in-shape hot guy and a guy with a huge tattoo become shirtless. She blows them away.

Everyone runs for cover. Bob asks her what she wants and she says she wants Ziggy, at that moment he has bread in his mouth. She sighs. Dillon is surprised when he is told by Ziggy in a military fashion that he is coming in. Black and Green save the Megazord and Ziggy asks to join in the Megazord, Red and Yellow welcome him but Flynn says that it clashes with the primary color motif of the Megazord. Anyway, they take care of the villain. Back at the base, Ziggy believes him and Dr. K are friends. Dr. K says he is only a piece of equipment to her. He tries teleporting once again and Mr. heart of gold gets telported to the ceiling fence-y grate thingy.

Review: Great episode! What makes this episode is the flashbacks. This is definitely a Ziggy and Dr. K episode. And Ziggy back in prison is always a good. Also, the return of the Scorpion Cartel mafia! As for the opening, we finally get the Green Ranger but for some reason, Flynn's video on his cast card has been changed, I miss when he laughs! It was so cute!

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

People always ask how many stuntmen have played female warriors and how many actual women have played the female warriors. I hate the convention of the color blue for boy and pink for girl but I used this time for the chart to be easy to understand. In this chart, Pink represents stuntwomen and Blue represents stuntmen who have had to 'stuff' their chest.

The men Midori Naito, Hiroshi Ueda, Ryoji Kurihara, and Shoji Ohara played Momo Ranger in Goranger and Minoru Yokoyama played Heart Queen.Lisa Komaki played Miss America and so did Eiko Onodera, she is Tsutomu Kitagawa's wife, Kitagawa has played Ninja Black, Battle Kenya, Shishiranger, Bat Li, and Godzilla suit since 1999, to name a few. Kitagawa played Miss America for the tough stunts. After that, Mr. Michihiro Takeda played the pink warriors (Denji Pink to Pink Five) and then guys Yuuichi Hachisuka and Masato Akada played the females from Changeman to Jetman. Shinobu Shimura also doubled as Goggle Pink and Dyna Pink, don't know if Shinobu is male or female. It wasn't a woman back until Zyuranger with Kiyohito Nakagawa. By Zyuranger, it was a stuntwomen once again until Carranger, where both female warriors were men. For Megaranger, MegaPink and NegiPink were women while MegaYellow and NegiYellow were men. GingaPink to TimePink were done by Motokuni 'Mr. Pink' Nakagawa.GaoWhite was done by Yuuichi Hachisuka (above), who has also done DekaBright, MagiMother, Mele's Beastman form, Gosei Pink, Hime Shinken Red, and Gokai Yellow.Then until Hurricanger, it was women again. Boukenger had men (Nakagawa and Hachisuka) and then Gekiranger, women again. Motokuni Nakagawa has also understudyed for Oh Pink, Pink Blocker, Mega Pink, Gao White, and Deka Yellow. Female Keiko Hashimoto (DekaYellow) also understudied for Oh Yellow. Interestingly enough Yuuichi Hachisuka played White Swan and his twin brotherShoji Hachisuka played Blue Swallow in Jetman, but Yuuichi was replaced by Masato Akada from episode 25 until the end of the series.Shoji took over for Yuuichi as BoukenYellow in Gekiranger vs. Boukenger as Yuuichi played Mele. Mr. Masaru Oobayashi who played Yellow Racer, has played Vankyuria in Magiranger and Dayu in Shinkenger, but has also played male Rei in Boukenger and Master Elehen Kempo in Gekiranger. Also worth mentioning, female Naoko Kamio has played a Hanaranger, MegaPink, and Snowijel but has also played the male Master ShaFu and gender-neutral RoboTough in Gekiranger. I think it is also worth mentioning that Kamen Rider Femme (Keiko Hashimoto) and Kamen Rider Larc [Yuuki Ono (Hurricane Blue, MagiPink, DekaSwan and AbareYellow)]were played by women; except for Kamen Rider Shuki--who was played by Naoki Nagase. Female Mizuho Nogawa has played MagiBlue, Go-On Silver, Gosei Yellow, and Gokai Pink---she reprise all three roles at least once in Gokaiger.

For the Power Rangers, most of the female rangers are portrayed by men, namely Namihei Koshige, who has played the Yellow MMPR Ranger (He started in 1995) to White Aquitar Ranger to Yellow Jungle Fury Ranger and most likely the RPM Yellow. He is one of the rare stunt actors that started in MMPR and has been there for New Zealand other than producer Koichi Sakamoto. For Power Rangers, a whole team of people play one ranger. Sometimes a woman (Bridget Riley, Minerva Adams, Sophia Crawford, Motoko Nagino, Nami Hanada, Jun Yamashita, and Hiromi Sunaoshi) would but the majority of the work has been done by men. Funny enough most of the gender-changed yellow rangers (Lost Galaxy, Lightspeed, Time Force, Wild Force) were played by men, except for the American MMPR Yellow Ranger.

This will be probably the last time I cover this! Big tear running down my cheek! The Power Rangers have been in Disney World resort and park's Hollywood Studios in Orlando, Florida since 2005. They are part of the DisneyStars and Motor Cars parade. Kids go in hordes. They only allow five at a time. Each year a Ranger gets replaced by another.

In 2005, there wasthe Pink Time Force Ranger (from the 2001 season),the Lunar Wolf Wild Force Ranger (silver, from the 2002 season),the Green Samurai Star Ranger (from the 2003 season),the white Dino Thunder Ranger (from the 2004 season), and the Red S.P.D. Ranger (from the 2005 season). Though they had irregular colors on the team not common for a standard five-color team: Red, Silver, White, Green, and Pink.

In 2006, the Pink Time Force Rangerwas retired by the Pink Mystic Force Ranger. She was selected to clearly replace the other Pink Ranger. Pink Time Force Ranger was at the park for only 2005.

In 2007, the Lunar Wolf Wild Force Rangerwas retired by the Yellow Operation Overdrive Ranger. She was probably selected to have two females. The Lunar Wolf Ranger was at the park from 2005 to 2007.

In 2008, the Green Samurai Star Ranger was retired and replaced by the Blue Jungle Fury Ranger. They still had irregular team colors: Red, Blue, Pink, Yellow, and White.He was probably selected because the series started with Red, Blue, and Yellow and they already had Red and Yellow. The Green Samurai Star Ranger was at the park from 2005 to 2008, for three years.

The White Dino Thunder Ranger was in the park from 2005 to 2009, for four years. On March 7th 2009, the White Dino Thunder Ranger was retired by the Green R.P.M. Ranger! I thought this year wouldn't be done because there will be no new season filmed in New Zealand (and Bandai America saying it won't be canceled doesn't prove anything to me) and there is 0 publicity being done (no official website, no merchandise other than toys so far), but I stand corrected! And for the first time ever, the DisneyWorld Power Ranger team has standard Ranger colors: Red, Green, Blue, Pink and Yellow. I am surprised they didn't go with Black--it would be the original colors of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, but I guess they wanted to stay with colorful colors--they are also the colors of the original Super Sentai... Goranger.

If you are parent and reading this, they say this Ranger has the power of the Shark, but the animal on his helmet is actually an Orca, the fin faces the opposite way, but Bandai America labeled it as a shark, probably thinking children shouldn't be educated about killer whales.

Disclaimers

- The only connection to Power Rangers I have is Power Force (which is a need to know basis) and SB does not control the content on this blog in any way.-Comments are to be approved (spamming and cursing will be deleted), so if you don't see your comment instantly,multiple posting isn't needed. If you post more than once, they'll be deleted. - Info on this blog is NOT 100% accurate because of human error, it is unintentional to be incorrect. - I'm prone to re-edit the posts. For updates, check my Twitter account.